Supermarkets ordered to pull beef from shelves following new BSE scare

13 April 2012

Beef products were pulled from stores due to a breach of BSE testing rules.

Asda and the Co-op are recalling liver, steak, mince and other goods supplied by Dunbia Northern Ireland.

The Food Standards Agency said an old cow had entered the food chain without being tested for BSE.

Under rules brought in last year, meat from cattle over 30 months old must test negative for the disease before it is sold for human consumption.

This is the first time that meat from older cattle has breached that rule by entering the food chain untested.

The FSA said the risk posed to consumers by the untested beef meat was "extremely low". But anyone who has the meat products at home should return them to stores instead of eating them, it advised.

Dunbia Northern Ireland announced the recall after realising a 54-month-old cow had been wrongly identified as being less than 30 months old and gone untested.

A few of the meat products are available only in Northern Ireland but the bulk were on sale UK-wide.

The FSA's director of enforcement David Statham said: "If people have eaten any of the affected products they should not be concerned as the risk to health is extremely low.

"The controls in place, including the removal of spinal cord, mean that 99 per cent of any infectivity that would be present if the cow had BSE is removed.

"Restrictions on the material that cattle are fed have meant that cases of BSE in the UK have been in steep decline over recent years."

Mr Statham said the FSA was working with the company involved plus the FSA Northern Ireland and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) Northern Ireland to find out the exact circumstances of the breach.

The animal was slaughtered in Northern Ireland on October 25. Meat and other products from its carcass were mixed with the carcasses of other animals killed on the same date and distributed in the UK.

The meat was also traded to Italy, France and Spain, the FSA said. New BSE testing rules came into force on November 7 last year.

They require all cattle aged over 30 months to test negative for BSE before entering the food chain.

Before the new rules came into force all meat from cattle aged over 30 months was banned from sale for human consumption.

A DARD spokesman said it would review meat plant procedures to ensure a similar breach of BSE testing rules did not happen again.

"Whilst this was an unfortunate incident, which occurred because of human error, consumers will be reassured by the Food Standards Agency confirmation that any risk to public health is extremely low," he said.

DARD said 68,113 animals had been checked - and tested negative - for BSE since the new rules came into force.

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